Manga Nature vs. Nurture - A Medaka Box Theory

[Tokiro Oumaga]

Maybe not the reaction you were hoping for since I didnt read the manga but was intrigued by the title and wanted to give you a comment

You pretty much got everything I was trying to convey, so I'm gonna take that as a win. I will say though that ultimately, yes, everyone here is some combination of nature and nurture, and I personally believe that the entire debate in psychology is silly on that basis. Every Plus is shown to have a base nature that is influenced by events in their life, such as Medaka deciding to dedicate herself to the happiness of strangers as a child because Hitoyoshi told her to. Every Minus becomes a particular way because of certain events, but they seem to have a predisposition for mental resilience, as all Minuses naturally smile in the face of adversity. A Not Equal is always going to have a particularly skewed mentality by their nature as a Not Equal, but the specific mentality for each of them is determined by their experiences, such as Ajimu becoming a solipsist because reality seemed too conveniently skewed in her favor.

Specials are naturally predisposed to having talent, but what talent they pursue may be determined by their environment. The best example of this would be Kouki Akune, whose special talent is learning technical skills by witnessing them, kind of like a Special version of Medaka's The End. Originally a violent delinquent, after he was reformed by Medaka, he chose to go into judo specifically even though his talent could be applied to any sport, specifically because it was a sport where he could fight as was in his nature but without needing to hurt people because he regretted his violent past.

In fact, Medaka actually had the opportunity to become every iteration of Abnormal in her own way. Shortly before meeting Hitoyoshi as a child, she met Kumagawa, who tried to instill his nihilist philosophy into her that life has no purpose when she was in the process of searching for meaning in her life after pushing so many people away. Medaka was definitely swayed by that philosophy, and had she continued to think that there was no meaning in her existence, who would be to say that she wouldn't have obsessed over it and eventually developed a Minus because of it? She still would have been an Abnormal and would have had The End, but she might have gained a Minus as well that could have warped The End to have a new ability (similar to how Kumagawa was given the causality reversing Skill, Hundred Gauntlets, by Ajimu and warped it into the reality erasing Skill, All Fiction, by virtue of his own personality). It was only because Medaka met Hitoyoshi less than an hour later and was given the doctrine of helping others that Medaka had a positive enough focus that she didn't turn into a Minus. Of course, had she met neither of them, who knows what sort of conclusion she would have come to when asking what her purpose was. As her mother, Hato Tsurubami, died when giving birth to Medaka, Medaka concluded that Hato's only purpose was to bring Medaka into the world. As soon as Medaka was born, she had thoughts that geared her towards being a Not Equal; other people only existed for the purpose of her existence and development. Had she stayed on that track, she could well have come to the conclusion that she was some kind of god or the natural conclusion of humanity's evolution. Her Skill, The End, being one that allows her to copy and perfect Skills, is only a stone's throw away conceptually from Ajimu's ability to conveniently awaken new Skills or Hanten's Skill creation ability, especially when you consider that she can even copy and perfect those abilities. Had Hitoyoshi not humbled her, she could easily have decided she was an existence on par or even above Ajimu, and she'd definitely be able to prove it. Medaka eventually loses The End when she matures into a well rounded adult, but the only reason she was able to do that was because she found a positive influence at her most formative point. With a negative influence, she would likely have become a MInus, and with no influence, she would have likely become a Not Equal. Her nature would have facilitated every possible outcome, but her environment nurtured the woman she eventually became.

Hm, I probably should have included this in the actual theory, huh?